Reservoir simulators that can run in parallel on high performance computing clusters are capable of processing models with hundreds of millions and even billions of grid cells. These models are expected to continue to grow as the fidelity of the data available to the engineers continues to improve, and as the availability of computing power continues to expand.
In contrast, visualization of these models is often carried out on workstations that, in comparison to the simulation clusters, have relatively limited resources. A challenge is realized in delivering an interactive experience to the user with visualizations executed on such workstations. While some approaches, such as loading the full model or results into memory have been successfully implemented in small and moderately-sized simulation models, such solutions generally are not scalable to large models of, e.g., billions of cells.